Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Please say it ain't so... , 1 by podster

podster wrote:
Yes, it is commonly called a hognose or spreading adder. Totally harmless except it will make us hurt ourselves. It was laying on the sidewalk when we got home the other night. My buddy Pod jumped out of the truck and landed on him. DH was sitting on the tailgate and called for me to come look.

They are interesting. They puff up like a cobra and when that doesn't intimidate, they vent foamy white foul smelling liquid. I read that is to repel predators. And their main diet is toads which have that same substance to repel also. Anyway when these guys realize you won't leave, they quickly roll over on their back and play possum. So fun to watch. It had blood coming from its' mouth and we think Pod might have hurt it when landing on it. I don't think it was serious and I moved it to the woods. It lay upside down for a while, then turned back upright while looking like a normal snake. Finally he disappeared into the leaves... hopefully to never be seen again ~ lol

Upside down on the shovel to be delivered to the woods. You can see a bit of blood from the mouth but no, we didn't injure him. The last photo is when he was upright and a free spirit.

Pretty cool. That was only the second one I'd ever seen in 37 years here.